Boris Todeth
Boris Todeth is the main antagonist of Joe Camp's 1981 television special Benji Takes a Dive at Marineland. He is a communist militia dachshund puppet who wants to prevent Benji from becoming the first dog to scuba dive. He was voiced by Hardy Haberman, along with many other puppet characters. Role Boris comments that he will never allow a "western capitalist" dog to be the first at anything and sets about to sabotage Benji's mission by stealing his specialist equipment. We then get a short sequence in which Benji comes nose-to-nose with some dolphins at the aquarium and does not seem to like them much. Jesse Davis starts up with a reprise of his number, whereupon Benji finally tires of his discouragement and sends him hurtling into the dolphin pool. Lana and Puggit are talking to Mareineland manager Cecil Walker, who informs them he's invited several major newspapers and television networks to cover Benji's historic dive, but a number of them have questioned the authenticity of the event, some even suspecting it of being nothing more than a cheap publicity stunt. To determine the odds of this, Lana switches over to Jimmy The Beak, a bookmaker who happens to be a rather lopsided-looking bird puppet (as if there's something seriously off with his balance receptors). Jimmy muses that if it were actually possible for a dog to scuba dive then conventional wisdom might dictate that older celebrity dogs like Rin Tin Tin and Lassie would have accomplished it by now, but gives odds of 8/5 in favor of the dive being genuine on the grounds that it often pays to root for the underdog. Meanwhile, Boris learns that Benji's all-important custom-made diving equipment is being guarded by a shark and eventually manages to swipe it after feeding the shark sleeping pills offscreen. He then looks up and sees Benji "confronting" him from the wall of the tank and knocks him into the water. As Benji scrambles for dry land, Boris finds Lana and announces that he, and not Benji, will be making the historic dive, then attempts to make a move on her. Repulsed, Lana smacks him with her fishy tail and sends the Stasi fleabag flying - whereupon he magically transforms into a rubber ring with ears and is thrown to the dolphins to bat around for a bit. Benji gets up to a bit of water-skiing, while Boris manages to escape the dolphins and elude Benji on a skateboard. Boris makes it to a platform above another tank and taunts Benji by announcing his plan to put on the diving gear there and then and dive in, instantly wrecking Benji's chances of being the first dog ever to scuba dive. Suddenly, Lana appears and tosses a fish into Boris' mouth, prompting a dolphin to leap up from the tank below and grab the fish, dragging Boris down into the water with it and giving Benji the opportunity to retrieve his stolen diving equipment. Navigation Category:Greedy Category:Sadists Category:Egotist Category:Presumed Deceased Category:Arrogant Category:Animal Cruelty Category:Live Action Villains Category:Movie Villains Category:Perverts Category:Rogues Category:Mongers Category:Abusers Category:Criminals Category:Incompetent Category:Psychopath Category:Mentally Ill Category:Wrathful Category:Male Category:Comedy Villains Category:Totalitarians Category:Dimwits Category:Benji Villains Category:Anthropomorphic Category:Book Villains Category:Saboteurs